Christmas Letter 2010

Merry Christmas from the Browns!

2010 is nearly over, and it's time to sum up the years' events. Here's what's been happening with us.

Josh still holds the job of Student Ministries Pastor at LifeSpring Church. He spends his weeks preparing sermons, attending meetings, meeting with students and parents, teaching Bible studies, planning events, and attending students’ various activities. This keeps him really busy, but he was glad to welcome on a second full-time student pastor in April to share the load. (The previous second pastor moved on to church planting in September of ‘09, so Josh had been on his own for several months.) His major events this year were a mission trip to Mexico in February, being the speaker for a middle school retreat in May, and three weeks of camp in July. He’s continued to take seminary classes, starting in on Greek this fall.

Josh also had the privilege of performing his first wedding this summer. His brother, Matt, married our new sister, Courtney. Josh officiated, I sang, and Micah was the ring bearer. It was a really special experience for all of us.

The biggest major event for us this year was the birth of our second child, Elijah Malcolm, born April 9th. Eli has been a very good baby, and it’s hard to believe that it was just this year he joined our family. We’ve already seen him learn to smile, roll over, sit up, crawl, and eat snacks. The phrase that best describes him is “Mama’s boy.” He’s a super happy guy, as long as someone’s holding him and he has someone to watch. And he’s huge—consistently in the 90th percentiles at his well-baby checkups.

In January, Micah was just learning to run around and had only begun to say a few words. Now, he’s 35 pounds of constant energy. His favorite things to do are wrestling with Daddy, running, jumping, and spinning in circles. He’s a very sweet big brother (most of the time!), and he talks all the time. He loves to point out letters, numbers, shapes, and colors when he sees them. He tries my patience sometimes, as any good two-year-old will do, but it’s a joy to be his mom and to watch him grow and develop. As a bonus, he’s very entertaining, constantly cracking us up.

As for me, I spent January and part of February finishing up a long-term sub job for a little Christian school. Since then I've been kept busy just figuring out how to be a mother of two while still keeping a home running. I also teach a small group of Jr. High girls and help out the youth group however I can.

2011 looks to be another busy but rewarding year. We look forward to another wedding in June (Josh’s sister, Kayla), and to more ministry and family fun as we live out God’s calling on our lives.

Much love,
Josh, Brie, Micah, and Eli

Thanksgiving!

Hi friends! I'm way late in posting this, as usual, but I thought you might like to hear about our Thanksgiving with the Headlee side.

We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with all but one member of the Headlee family. We all made our way up to the farm in Bancroft for a 36-hour Thanksgiving/Christmas whirlwind. As our family gets bigger (adding a girlfriend and more grandkids to the mix), it's harder and harder to get everyone together, and it's even harder for all of us to get any sleep while we're there (five grandkids under five is tough!). But it's so worth it!

Here's Mom and Dad with their "granddarlings," as Mom calls them. We bribed them all to be still with candy canes (and a carrot for Eli). Micah went to town on that candy cane. In the two or three minutes that we were taking pictures, he ate it down to the U-shape. Sheesh. L to R: Cady (age 4--Kellen's), Natalie (Age 3--Eric's), Micah (2), Kenny (1--Eric's), and Eli (7 months).

Kellen decided that we all needed to go to a Husker game together, so we bought our tickets, put on our red (and our layers), and went to Lincoln for the UNL-C.U. game on Friday after Thanksgiving. Of course, we had to go watch the band warm up in front of Westbrook. Here's my dad the Band-Man watching and loving it:

And some pics from the game. Love Kenna's hat!

This random old guy behind us gave Josh a hard time for wearing a Broncos hat. Like the Huskers and the Broncos are rivals or something, geesh. It was COLD. Hats of any kind were necessary.

And not one day, but two of the days we were together, Kenna and I dressed very similarly. So we took a pic. Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.....

Ahh, I love my family. Can't wait for the holidays in 2014 or so when the stars might align so we can all be together again.....

P.S. In April and May, we'll get two more grandbabies. Jenny and Elizabeth are both pregnant! Woo-hoo!

First Snow

I'm a little late with this post, but Micah got to play in the snow for the first time ever last week. Last winter he was still getting used to walking, so he didn't ever really get to enjoy the snow (which is a shame, since there was sooooo much snow last year!). But we recently had a decent snowfall here in Nebraska that stayed through the morning but melted away in the afternoon (the best kind!), so Josh bundled Micah up and took him out. Here he is in his snow gear: It took him a while to be able to walk in it without falling down.

I think he ate about half of the snow in the yard.

Josh and Micah also made a huge snowball, starting it at the top of the hill and rolling it until it was too big to roll. It's a shame I didn't get a picture of it (although ten days later, some of it still remains). Micah kept talking about the "big ball" that they made.

After they came in, I made the boys hot chocolate. Micah LOVED it.

And just because he's cute:

Happy Winter!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

As your kids begin talking more and more, you start to realize that the things that come out of their mouths are the same things that come out of your mouth. And you see them doing things that you realize are imitations of the way you do things. It's like a tiny, distorted mirror! So here are some of the "Monkey See, Monkey Do" moments I've noticed lately.

• Micah has seen me clean his grubby fingerprints off a DVD so many times, that today I saw him breathe on a DVD, then pull up his shirt and rub it on his bare belly before putting it in the DVD player. (By the way, that's NOT how I clean them!)
• Once, when I was watching t.v. and Micah was trying to tell me something, he came over, grabbed my chin, and turned my face to look at his. Just like I do when I need his attention. :)
• Micah "helps" me fold the laundry by picking an article of clothing out of the basket, shaking it, and then laying it in a pile on the couch. I never realized that I shake all the clothes before I fold them, but I guess I do.
• He's kind of obsessed with eggs, always wanting to hold them and whatnot. I finally let him break one for a recipe. He tapped it on the pointy end, and once it cracked, he just kind of squeezed until the shell crushed and the egg came out. I didn't have to show him what to do, though. He knew how to break an egg!
• While I'm slathering lotion on Micah after a bath, I usually have to pick a fallen hair or two (of mine) off his body where it's stuck to the lotion. Now Micah has started to pinch imaginary hairs off his skin and throw them on the floor while we're going through this routine.
• The most-spoken phrases in our house (judging by the phrases Micah imitates) are: "What are you doing?" "Where are you?" (when he's in another room and I can't see him), "Be careful!" (He said that one when Josh leaned his chair on two legs during dinner), and "No get me!" (i.e. "You can't get me.")

Do your kids do any humorous imitations of you? Tell me about it in a comment.

October Pictures

Took me long enough, but here you go:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=253659&id=506485788&l=3bbc6c8967

Pumpkin Patch!

A couple of weeks ago, we visited a pumpkin patch with the Jantz's (Ryan Jantz is the other student pastor with Josh). They have four kids, so altogether it was a crew of six kiddos and four adults. We had a blast!

It took some searching to find a smaller pumpkin farm that wouldn't be as crowded as the ones right in Omaha, but we ended up at the Bloom Where You're Planted Farm, a little south of town, and I'm glad we did. It was just the right size, with lots of stuff to entertain our young kids, but without the crowds and pricey admissions.

The first thing the kids did is play on a hay bale that you could jump on from a cattle chute. They'd climb up, slide off, and do it again and again.
I think their favorite part was this "corn box." Less messy than sand, but so much fun! They climbed and jumped, dug, and were buried in corn. Here's Micah holding a giant squash (or something?) in the gourd garden.

Then we took a wagon ride out to the field to pick a pumpkin. Here's the Jantz family:
Believe it or not, this is actually the better of the two family pictures we attempted.

It took Micah a long time to pick out a pumpkin. He kept picking one up, turning it over, and then putting it back down because it had dirt on it. I think in the end Josh just brushed one off before Micah noticed the dirt.

They had free pumpkin painting, so Micah used a paintbrush for the first time. I think he did a fabulous job, and he didn't even get messy.

And just for kicks, here's a pic of my manly husband, atop a tractor with his sippy cup. :)

I made Josh take a picture of me just to prove that I was there. You can see Micah's paint job a little better in this one.

Going to a farm like this reminds me of growing up in the country and of hanging out at the Schweitz's farm almost every Sunday afternoon. Good times...

You Might Be a Chubby Baby If....

(This one goes out to Jeff Foxworthy)

If your cankles lop over the top of your shoes, you might be a chubby baby.

If you have dimples where your knuckles should be, you might be a chubby baby.
If your joints look like they were created by putting rubber bands around long pillows, you might be a chubby baby.
If you can't find your neck among all of your chins, you might be a chubby baby.
And if you can't wear a low-cut onesie because it shows too much cleavage, well, you just might be a chubby baby.